Devgamer

Evercracked Movie part 1

2009-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

I got to watch this a few months ago, and now its publically available. check it yo!

EverQuest II Players

2009-11-03T12:02:00.001-08:00

EverQuest II Players

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Crabcore gif for your enjoyment

2009-10-14T15:08:00.001-07:00

I know this isn't related to video games, but I can't help it.

To commemorate some of the worst music on the internet, I decided to share these with you all.

Look them up on youtube if you want to check their video out, the band is called Attack Attack.

Made by miriku @ www.miriku.com

This Capsuleer is Signing Out

2009-09-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

So, after a couple of years of intermittent play, I've finally let EVE Online go, at least for the time being. I enjoy the game when I can find a good group of people to play with, but mostly spend most of my time in a mind numbing, yet cathartic haze of mining rocks.

I love the game, I guess it's just not loving me back enough to keep me paying for it month after month, at least at this time. This is definitely a game where you have to participate in it and get active. You have to look for the fun, it won't seek you out.

I've had a bunch of fun with it, but it is time to power the ship down and look for adventures in other regions of space, should they show up.

Scribblenauts is a Great Game For Someone Like Me

2009-09-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've always liked words. I used to be pretty proud of the fact that when I was in grade school, my reading and writing levels were through the roof compared to 98% of all other students in my grade level. Over the years, that deteriorated to the mess you read in this blog, but nonetheless, I still like big words, and enjoy what I claim to be a decent grasp of my native language.

While there are a lot of puzzle games out there for all kinds of people, there are only a few for dorks like me who enjoy words just for the sake of words. Sometimes I like to mull over the sound of a word, or the meaning of a word just because I enjoy it. Games like Bookwork Adventures, and Word Shark appeal to me, but a game like Scribblenauts is pure crack.

While the game mechanics are clunky in terms of the odd platforming physics, and the interactions between the objects, the game really appeals to the part of me that wants to BREAK IT. Maybe it's the QA background that I have, but I am always trying to think outside of the box and refuse to solve the puzzles in an obvious way. It's an ex game tester's dream, let alone a word dork's dream.

I've been having a great time playing this. I recommend it to those of you that really want to push the game's massive dictionary and play around with it. It's not a game for people who are looking for exacting movement and interactions, because in all truthfulness it's quite sloppy in that regards.

Saavedra's Fan Faire Recap

2009-07-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, I'm MOSTLY recovered from the SOE Fan Faire as I write this. I say mostly, because my voice has only partially recovered, and my feet still "kinda" hurt from standing around at the booth so much.

I had such a good time this year! At least I think I did! To be honest, I didn't have alot of time for recreation, as I was almost exclusively chained to our kiosk demoing The Agency! I don't know how many times we ran through the gameplay that we were demoing, but I do know that I lost my voice over it.

Besides all of the demoing, the panels, and the SOE related events I really didn't get to do all that much in terms of extraneous activity. I have friends who live out there, but never got a chance to call them, I think I spent all of my free time talking to guildies or potential Agency players.

As I put it to Dan, our producer that was there, we only really took naps the entire time we were there. We are talking 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night. In fact, I never left the building even once during the event, and didn't see daylight for 3 days. The only time I saw the outside was when I arrived and when I left.

Anyways, this was a great Fan Faire for me. I thought our game was well recieved, the crossroads area was trafficked much more than in past years. I was enjoying all of the affection that EQ2 was getting, despite my not being on the team anymore. Overall it was a good time.

One really cool thing for me, that I'm not sure most of you can relate to is the fact that this new Odus expansion will be the first EQ2 expansion where I don't know about everything that is going into it before I get to play it. For the first time I'll be able to experience it purely as a player instead of a developer, so I really look forward to that. I'm also looking forward to some of the cool features that are coming and probably anticipate it as much as the next EverQuest 2 fan!

This time around, I quite enjoyed The Agency panels, despite the rocky start we had with the first one. I got to field quite a bit of questions about Pvp and it made me so happy to see all of the interest in it. We got to show some footage and images that no one has seen before, so that was pretty cool as well. I thought it was pretty fun watching people with their cameras snapping shots like fiends as we showed some of it.

I saw some really fantastic costumes this time around as well. There must have been double the number of entries this year! I was so impressed by the fact that some people chose to make costumes of things that were not particularly their avatars, so that was so cool. Big props to the girl dressed as a Siren, not only because she wore the costume well (and I mean very well!) she did such a great authentic job with it.

Anyways, I had a great time and look forward to doing it again, God willing. I always feel so blessed to meet the people who keep me employed and always feel so grateful for their enthusiasm. It makes coming back to work such an exciting thing.

Oh Midway

2009-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

It bums me out when I hear all of the news about the crumbling game giant Midway.

I worked there for almost 12 years, and that place was like a second home to me more than many of you can imagine due to how much overtime I spent there.

It really pushes my buttons to hear that Ed Boon is twittering about his next Mortal Kombat game while my friends are packing their desks in San Diego.

I still remember the day when those guys bought us out. Back then the company in San Diego was known as Leland Interactive Media. They made games like Offroad Challenge, John Elway's Quarterback and Dragons Lair. They made so many promises back then, and truthfully the company did really well for a number of years.

Almost every 3rd party title that came out of Midway over the last 15 years came out of San Diego, IE the games that kept them afloat long enough to make lots of lukewarm Mortal Kombat, Blitz, and NBA Jam sequels in Chicago. It's sad that this is one of the studios that doesn't make the cut.

Learning is Often a Painful Experience

2009-06-09T10:50:00.001-07:00

A long time ago, a great programmer that I knew by the name of Steve Ranck told me that learning is painful. At the time, I think it was around when I was learning to use 3d Studio Max when I was a track designer for the arcade game Hydro Thunder, and I was having a rough time with it. Hell, I was having a rough time with all the tools we were using, despite the fact that they were fantastic.

The bottom line is, alot of game design is painful to some extent. Putting ideas on down on paper is one thing, but executing them is another. That's why you hear about all of these developer horror stories where an executive or producer that isn't close to the actual production of his game makes outrageous demands of his designers, artists and programmers, leading up to an implosion of sorts for the game. They just don't understand that some tasks are difficult to the point of being "painful".

For just over a week now, I've been learning some new design stuff for The Agency, and boy oh boy have I been pinging the pain threshold! The work I'm currently doing is super cool, and fun to do, but man oh man, It is rough when you make n00b mistakes. I'm the kind of guy that likes to get really good at one thing, then move on to the next, and I'm in that "next" transition right now.

The point of this is, you aren't going to learn anything unless you get out of that comfort zone. Those of you that are picking up unreal ed for the first time for example, you are going to find it almost insurmountable in how complex it is. What I want to say to you guys is, don't give up! You have to break through the wall before you can really get comfortable with the tools of the trade.

I'm by no means an expert in the realm to be truthful. I am a great tool user when it comes to game design, but I require a certain amount of ramp up time before I really get comfortable with it. I'm blessed in the aspect that I have a job that I can go to that practically forces me to learn these things... Things that I'm already interested in on a hobby level, where I have to get results in X amount of time, therefore I'm forced to persevere through that tough learning stage. Those of you out there that are just getting started, sitting in your bedroom dreaming of becoming a game designer, you have to buckle down and blast through the roadblocks, it's the only way it's going to happen.

What Kind of Laptop Does a Game Designer Buy?

2009-06-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

What kind of laptop would a Game Designer buy? That's the question I've been asking myself over the last couple of months of laptop research.

I finally figured out the answer to that question, and for me it's the Sager 8662.

Who is Sager? Well... you know all those high end laptop companies out there? They all buy their parts from the same company... The company is called Clevo. Sager directly buys their parts from Clevo, and only makes the highest end gaming laptops.

I knew I wanted something that wasn't bigger than 15 inches for screen size, and I wanted something fast enough to game and work on.

I ended up with the Sager 8662, bought through xoticpc.com

Here are the specs:

1x Sager NP8662 (Built on Clevo M860TU)

- Warranty: 3 Year Labor* 1 Year Parts Warra
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Microsoft Office Software: No Office Software
- Operating System: None Standard - Drivers & Utilit
- Notebook Cooler: No Notebook Cooler
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Port Replicator / Dock / Adapter: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Spare AC Adapter: None Standard*
- Car Adapter: No Car Adapter
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Case: Basic Black Business Case - Incl
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audi
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Wireless Network Accessories: No Network Accessory
- Wireless Network: Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 530
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/
- Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive
- External Hard Drive (Back Up): No Back Up Hard Drive
- Primary Hard Drive: ~ 320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 3
- Optical Drive: ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Intel® Robson Turbo Memory: None Standard--
- Ram: ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Chan
- External Monitor Video Adapter: No Video Adapter
- Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1,024MB
- Processor: ~Intel® P9700 45nm "Montevina" C
- Dead Pixel Policy: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Arctic Silver: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- Display: 15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super

So, why this laptop you ask?

It's the fastest 15 inch laptop on the market... bar none. Can you say Crysis running smoothly in high quality in native resolution on a lappy? Oh yes...

All I have to say is this machine looks sexy! I couldn't love a human child as much as I love this laptop! (j/k)

E3 From a Distance: Through a Dev's Eyes

2009-06-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

My brain has been steeping in the E3 waters all week, and I think I've taken in just about all I can handle. Being up here in Seattle way from the hustle and bustle of E3 (which is very different for me, considering I've attended at least 8 or 9 of these things) is both a curse and a blessing.

I'm consuming E3 as most consumers do, through various web portals, through the consoles that have updates on them, and through my friends. I might have a closer inside scoop than alot of you, but for the most part, I've been reading the exact same stuff as you, and finding out about it just like you are, including the Sony stuff.

Based on what I saw, I saw alot of exciting stuff coming out in the near future. There were definitely some Meh moments for me as well though, and I'll try to get to that too. I think the hardest thing to do is to separate the wheat from the chaff, because it's so hard to figure out what is real and what isn't at E3. I can assure you that the footage getting around on various sites about The Agency is quite real, but I'm a bit disappointed that we couldn't see any real quality footage beyond that of external cameras showing the game. It really is more vibrant in person, than any of the footage i've seen hit the internet.

Stuff I'm excited about:

I'm excited that the PS3 looked so good this year. I think development for this console is really coming into it's own, and I'm glad to see it being embraced as a game console on top of being a media machine.
I couldn't believe how good Uncharted looked. I saw previous PvP footage that made me pretty excited for it, but the demo they showed at E3 was amazing. That had to be the most exciting game at E3, hands down.
I also loved Assasin's Creed II. I never played the first one, but now I want to go buy that to be ready for the new one! I love the setting in the game, and I was floored with how fluid the movement was.
DCUO is really starting to come together too, and I'm getting excited for that game as well. Lucky for me, that I can log into that right now and play =D
I was blown away by the visuals of Gran Turismo 5. I want that game so bad it hurts!
I want to play Forza 3 very badly as well, but I felt like the video they had of the cars spinning around was pretty lame and silly looking, which was kind of a turn off. I would have preferred they went a more serious approach like Gran Turismo did. Right now it looks like Gran Turismo is going to dominate.
Gran Turismo PSP. DO WANT
God of War III looked awesome, of course. All of the God of War games are awesome. My wife is going to hate it though, because when God of War 2 came out, I told her that I'm the God of War, and the God of War does not take out the trash or change the kitty litter.
PSP Go! There is no way my wife is going to let me get this when I have a PsP. I'll have to convince her that I need it for work somehow lol.
I'm stoked a new Professor Layton is coming out. My wife loves those games, and I have to admit, I'm pretty happy when she asks for help on a puzzle, because that means I get to pry it from her fingers from time to time.
Metroid made by Team Ninja. They wouldn't have to even show me a screenshot and I'll buy this.
The more I look at the New Super Mario Bros. Wii gameplay, the more I want to buy it. I wish they would just stick to this series and go with it instead of doing another Mario Galaxy.
Modern Warfare couldn't get into my 360 fast enough. WTF man! Get me a copy of this!
I will be buying Brutal Legend, and I will be awesome.
Castlevania is my favorite game series of all time. Hideo Kojima. Need I say more?
Lego Harry Potter might be my first lego game purchase. It's too cute.
I think I'll be picking up Halo ODST. I'm interested to see how they play that story out. I think this one I'll have to keep an eye on.

The "Meh's" of the show:

As I stated before, I'm excited to PLAY Forza 3, but man oh man was that trailer with the cars flipping around dumb to me.
I'm not sold on Natal. I thought the demo looked hokey on the stage of the conference, and I couldn't help but feel like the actions were really off from what was going on on screen. I'm trying to imagine some of the scenarios played out in the pre made video, like where the family is all on the couch while a racing game is going on, and I just can't see that playing well at all. I don't see myself waving my arms long distances just to scroll through my friends list on my xbox either. Maybe I'm just not getting it. Then again, I haven't bought into the wii controller too, I feel like the waving around motions have ruined more games then helped them so far.
Milo. I'm sorry, but who cares? I have no interest in helping an 11 year old boy do his homework. I think it's neat that he can see facial expressions, but where is the fun? HAL 9000 could see facial expressions too you know... Anyways, I just wasn't as floored by this as some people seem to be. It all comes back to wildly gesticulating my arms to get something done in a game. I want accuracy I guess.
Where are the real MMORPGS? Heroes of Telara, that's about it? If the right people (IE my friends) are working on that project, I'm 100% positive that game is going to be good. But other than that, where are the rest of them? They must have eluded me or something. What a disappointment though.
Left 4 Dead 2. Seriously? Already? The first one didn't have enough content to last a full year, and that was totally OK! We knew what we were getting! But another one at full price already? I really doubt I'll pick this up at full price.
No real gameplay footage of FFXIII makes me a sad panda. I can't figure out if I want this game yet or not. I've seen part of like one fight or so, but that's it. Is the game linear? I can't tell if there is a whole world out there or what.
I didn't see any good old school shooters announced at all this year. That's a shame, it's one of my favorite game genres. I would love to make one.
Nintendo's pulse taker thingie. I mean seriously guys? YAWN
Nintendo is really screwing this up man... I love these guys, but they are making it hard to love them. Where are the GAMES people? That's great, I can do leg lifts with my Wii, and count calories. I can look at the weather. Where are the fricken games mang!!??
Deep down inside my soul I hoped there would be some update or attachment that would allow 720p to be on the Wii. Every time I turn my system on, it's so obvious that I'm not getting an HD resolution. I'm thinking of pulling the system out of the living room and putting it elsewhere, because really, It's becoming an eye sore to play games that look fuzzy like that. I'm a gaming snob man.

That's all I can think of for now.

The Agency In Game Footage @ E3

2009-06-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Massively.com, one of my favorite websites has footage of the in game demo for The Agency, which can be found here: http://www.massively.com/2009/06/03/e3-2009-the-agency-in-game-footage/

Or, you can just look at the embeded video instead!

The Agency Website Get's A Facelift

2009-06-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just in time for E3, The Agency website on Station.com gets a facelift. If you want to check it out, feel free to drop in.

http://theagency.station.sony.com/

If you are feeling extra sassy, add yourself to The Agency twitter list. I am not a twit who tweets, probably because I'm old and a curmudeon who doesn't get it's appeal, but if you are interested I think its under The_Agency_Game on there.

E3 is coming

2009-05-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is my second E3 season living up in the Seattle area, so I will miss the show again, which still feels pretty weird to me. I lived in southern California for most of my adult life, which is pretty much a 15 years worth of my game career, so I always had access to these shows.

With that being said, I don't really know what I'm looking forward to, or hoping for at this year's E3. Of course, I'm hoping The Agency shows well, of which I am very confident based on what I've been playing the past couple of months, but I'm also interested to see what cool new shooters are coming down the pipe, and what the hot new MMOs are going to be.

I guess I always felt that the interim years where consoles are gaining their feet to be a bit on the boring side for the show. It's great when you see the consoles come into their own as the developers get stronger at squeezing every last bit of power out of them, but it's also fun to see the new consoles when the show up as well.

I still remember when they unveiled the N64, and that was probably the most exciting E3 that I can remember to date. It was such a huge deal to us, both as gamers and as developers. I remember getting the dev kits in the office and being so stoked about it.

That E3 also stands out as being a huge Pokemon year, and they had tons of that stuff around all over the place.

I'm glad they are bringing back the old E3 style, despite the fact that I didn't attend the new one last year. My friends who did work the show, were underwhelmed to say the least last year, and I was hoping they can bring it back to it's former glory. Here's to hoping at least!

Do you guys have any major releases that you are looking forward to?

What are your thoughts on Darkfall?

2009-05-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'm intrigued by the game Darkfall, and am considering getting into it. Has anyone that happens upon this blog played it and have any thoughts on it? I'm curious what you think about it.

A Bunch of The Agency News

2009-05-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

A bunch of The Agency news is getting around the intarwebs, so I thought I would share what I've dug up.

Here is a CG trailer that was on G4tv last night:

Video Games - E3 2009 - Video Game Trailers

Here is their preview: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/695816/First-Impression-The-Agency.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed

and a few more:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-interview-the-agency/49457

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/985/985619p1.html

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3174394&p=37&sec=PREVIEWS

http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/sony-online-mercenary-mmo-untitled/986091p1.html

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/theagency/video/6210156/the-agency-hal-milton-interview

http://blog.seattlepi.com/digitaljoystick/archives/169295.asp?from=blog_last3

Free Realms - Character Profile

2009-04-30T15:05:00.001-07:00

Free Realms - Character Profile

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I'm Digging Killzone 2

2009-03-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

My broken PS3 adventure ended up leading me to buy a new one altogether after I weighed in all of the options. I'm not a big fan of having refurbished stuff, and I had read up that the newest gen machines were running cooler and quieter, so I just ended up buying one.

I've bought a couple of games since then, most notably Killzone 2, which I am having a great time, at least for the multiplayer stuff.

Being really involved in Pvp on my own shooter, it's really interesting to see how different companies deal with different problems that we universally share as designers.

I like how they seamlessly flow between game modes within one match for example, I think that's really neat. Some of those game modes I like better than others, but for the most part I have a really good time, and feel directed well enough to make a difference in a fight.

I'm not a big fan of having all of the good stuff locked securely away from me unless I have 20 or 30 hours to spend online though. I'm about halfway through the ranks at around 10 hours of play, though I probably could have done it faster if I didn't spend so much time analyzing the map flow and all that other good stuff that non designers don't care about.

I added my psn profile thing to my other random info things on the sidebar of this page in case anyone wants to play sometime. I made a relatively empty clan named -=the agency=-

Finally Dinged 80 in EverQuest 2

2009-02-08T05:17:00.001-08:00

After a several month hiatus from playing EverQuest 2, I have finally returned to finish up where I left off.

I just played a 13 hour shift in the game to ding 80, so I'm posting a screenshot to commemorate the occasion.

I thought this post on the best/worst nes game endings was pretty neat

2009-02-03T14:56:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon this post about the screwattack.com article showing the best and worst nes game endings and thought I would share.

http://screwattack.com/node/16868

Posted via email from Devgamer

test post

2009-01-07T21:26:00.001-08:00

test post using posterous (kinda neat)

Posted via web from Kramer,'s posterous

Baroo?

2009-01-03T11:58:00.001-08:00

Cavaliers go Baroo

read more | digg story

Repair or No? My PS3 is Dead

2008-11-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

My PS3 has been dead as a doornail for a few months now. It was part of that ravenous electronics breaking disease I had running rampant through my house for a few months.

I haven't replaced the thing ever since I called customer service months ago because I wasn't all that thrilled about having to spend $150.00 on what essentially is a used system, because they didnt explicity say that they would fix MINE.

Most people my shrug and say big deal, but I would be bummed out if they send me a refurbed machine minus the hardware backwards compatability in it. I inquired about whether or not I would be guaranteed it to the customer service rep, but they said they didn't know, and said I just just put a note in the box with my system. LOL. Yeah, like they will open mine, before they just send me some other random system.

So, here I am months later, with all of these blu ray movies coming out that I want, Resistance is out, LBW is out, Metal Gear Solid is out, and I'm sitting with a paperweight on the entertainment system.

I still havent decided what I should do. Part of me just wants to buy a new one outright, at least I'll know I got the latest build of the system, while the other part of me still wants the hardware backwards compat.

I still don't know what im going to do. Bleh!!

Not Sold on the NXE Yet

2008-11-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

After spending some time with the "New Xbox Experience" last night, I'm not entirely sure that I'm sold on the new layout.

I like some of the new features that came with it, like the ability to party up with friends, or the cool new Netflix integration, but I'm just not that happy on the pseudo prettied up version of the Windows Media Extender that they've done.

Have no doubt my friends, this is definitely a gussied up version of the Windows Media extender, it's just spaced out a bit more. I've had nothing with bad luck trying to navigate the media extender, and it's really not my style of interface compared to the old blade system they had in place on the 360.

I find it really odd that they went for the low rez approach that the Wii did on their avatars, despite the firepower that the xbox has. I mean, the face customization options were a blatant ripoff of the Mii's that Nintendo gives you, I mean, couldn't they have at least attempted to do something a little more original and XBOX looking? The avatars in the Home are distinct on their own without blatantly copying the Mii, why not Xbox's?

I do like seeing my friends avatars all standing around when they are playing their games though, it's pretty neat. I think its hard to figure out who is online though, at a glance.

What really boggled my mind was the new usage of the Xbox Button. I don't get the super small, grey window they bring up to do all of your quick commands. It's too small, and looks incredibly bland compared to the rest of the interface. It just seems out of place, and perhaps rushed. It certainly doesn't have the clean look that it used to have, and is definitely a step backwards in terms of aesthetics, and quite possibly, functionality.

I'm sure i'll get used to the change, but for now I'm not as thrilled as I hoped I would be with the new direction they are going with this. It's too bad that I don't get an option to choose between the two modes either, I'm stuck with their decision, when I bought into another interface a couple years ago and have grown to be quite fond of it.

A Blogger Frustrated With Bloggers

2008-11-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

I wish I got paid a dollar for every patently false and inflaming headline I see in gaming blogs these days. I know people are trying to drive hits to their pages, but what about having a bit of integrity to what you are reporting?

I pretty much write in this thing as a personal outlet about my thoughts on gaming and being a game developer. I have another blog on Livejournal that I save for the personal stuff, mostly because no one there wants to read about whether or not I'm having a good time in Left 4 Dead this week or not.

I can only venture to guess that people would write headlines like "Sony Screws the NXE" and other such drivel to drive traffic to their sites, because these allegations drive hits.

Over the past year or two, I've seen these kinds of headlines about this or that company, and I just don't understand how people can just throw integrity out the window and post wild opinions as news on these "news" sites.

Just recently, I read that Midway Games is supposedly blaming Unreal 3 on their financial woes. The reporter of this news fails to go any deeper into what was really said by Midway, and instead makes this sensation claim, as if they could blame all of their troubles on one engine among all of the engines that they use, and all of their 3rd party products. What really was said was, they spent too much time customizing the engine, without having any real experts on it, which ended up costing them time and quality in the end. In other words, they shouldn't have opened up the hood on the car when they didn't know how to fix the parts they ripped out.

Maybe it sounds lousy that I'm sitting here defending 2 companies, both that I have worked for, but they are the most recent examples of this behavior. I find it intensely annoying, and it makes me want to quit reading some of these websites.

It's That Season Again

2008-11-14T01:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas always comes early for us gamers doesn't it? So much to play and so little time.

The curse really amplifies when you are a game developer, let me tell you. Our deadlines are almost always falling around these dates without fail, whether a game is being released or not, but we want to enjoy the fruits of everyone elses labors in the game industry at the same time.

I've been trying to be "good" and not buy a zillion games, but somehow they keep sneaking into my shopping cart anyway. I didn't intend to buy Dead Space right after it came out, but lo' and behold I'm still playing it one hour at a time.

I also intend to buy Left 4 Dead, whether or not I have the time to play it is yet to be determined.

I've told myself that I can't keep buying games unless I either beat some of them, or cancel memberships to them if they are MMOs. Somehow, I just can't part ways with EVE yet, because it's just so damn good. I get all of my SOE games for free, so there is no reason to quit playing them (hehe), and I haven't gotten burned out on Warhammer Online yet, but I've definitely slowed down my play due to my work habits.

As far as work has been going, well, it's been going amazing. We have made huge strides with The Agency, and I've been really enjoying how things are progressing with the game. It keeps getting more and more fun, and I am really proud that I have had a nice impact on the game since I've joined the team.

I still feel these twinges of sadness though when I think about EverQuest II. The expansion is coming out very soon, and they just celebrated their 4th year anniversary, so it's a bit tough on me in a way because I not only miss my friends who are still on that team, but I miss being immersed in that game as much as I was. I look forward to seeing how the dungeons I initially designed before I left for The Agency turned out, because most of them were empty shells or just lines on map in a wiki page when I last saw them. I have seen some of the Miragul's stuff, which I'm really stoked to see, because the concept behind that content was a long time coming before it saw the light of day. Some of the ideas that sparked those zones were things I wrote up almost 3 years ago right after I finished writing the Splitpaw Saga quests, so it's wonderful to see it come to life finally. I'm sure alot has changed from those initial ideas, but it's nice to see a little bit of me in there somewhere even still.